Order Orbital Angular Momentum Modes Research Articles

Orbital angular momentum modes in dielectrically chiral-core fibers

Abstract In this paper, we investigate a dielectrically chiral-core fiber for the generation of orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes. We observe that the presence of chirality induces a modal index split between the same order OAM modes with opposite topological charges and arbitrary phase front rotation directions, which are originally degenerate in achiral fibers. This split indicates the existence of circular birefringence (CB) associated with a dielectric chirality. The modal cutoff splits result in a single polarization property without the possibility of coupling between the same order modes that correspond to a single +l or -l OAM mode guiding. However, neither of the two fundamental modes guided in the chiral fiber exhibits a cutoff, despite having different modal indices due to chirality. Upon fraction of modal power cutoff, the high-order modes in the core region display different cutoff fractions of modal power between the same order modes, while the fundamental mode has no cutoff fraction of modal power. Owing to the CB and different fractions of modal power in the core for different handed OAM modes, dielectrically chiral fibers have potential applications in chiral sensing, circular polarization-dependent OAM mode filters, and new kind of OAM mode generators.

All-fiberized sorter for nondestructively splitting the orbital angular momentum modes

Orbital angular momentum (OAM) mode sorter is crucial for various OAM (de)multiplexing applications. However, it is challenging to sort the OAM mode without destroying its helical phase. Here, an all-fiber non-destructive OAM mode sorter is proposed for splitting the high purity (>90%) OAM beam with specific topological charge, polarization state and wavelength. By controlling the asymmetrical microfiber coupling region, only the specific OAM mode satisfies the phase matching condition. The all-fibered OAM sorter is optimized to splitting the third order OAM mode with the maximum coupling efficiency 91.02% and the purity 94.71%. The Multiple modes sorter can be realized through the multistage cascaded structure. The proposed all-fiber OAM sort will be a prospective component to expand the OAM beam fiber system.

Bi-directional high-order orbital angular momentum mode generation using gratings in high numerical aperture fiber

We propose a novel design and theoretically analyse it for bi-directional orbital angular momentum (OAM) mode generation in high numerical aperture (NA) optical fibers using the combination of a long period grating (LPG), a short-period (Bragg) grating and a three-port optical circulator. The proposed design consists only of standard fiber gratings rather than specially designed fibers, such as ring-shaped or other types of fibers, making our model relatively simple. Full-vector true-mode analysis has been used to study the modal characteristics of the supported modes in the high-NA fiber. High-NA optical fibers can effectively relieve the degeneracy of the linearly polarized modes. A circularly polarized (CP) light is injected into a single mode fiber, the output end of which is axially spliced into a high-NA fiber. An appropriately designed raised-cosine apodized tilted LPG (TLPG) is used for broad bandwidth coupling of the fundamental HE11 mode to the co-propagating HE21 mode. The employed TLPG converts the CP fundamental core mode (HE 11x ± iHE 11y ) to ±1 order OAM modes (HE 21even ± iHE 21odd ). Both the CP mode and the generated OAM pass through the circulator in the direction of port 1 to port 2. A second fiber is connected at the output of port 2 and a tilted fiber Bragg grating (TFBG) is used to couple the forward-propagating HE11 core mode with the counter-propagating HE21, EH11 and HE31 core modes. The TFBG reflected higher order (±1 and ±2) OAM modes are transmitted through port 3. We observe that the TFBG has a mode-conversion efficiency of more than 95 % for each mode conversion. The generated vortex beam topological charges have been verified using the coaxial interference method.

Ultra-broadband multi-channel orbital angular momentum mode generator using a helical long-period grating pair

We demonstrate an ultra-broadband multi-channel orbital angular momentum (OAM) mode generator using a helical long-period grating (HLPG) pair in a few-mode fiber. The numbers of the channel of the OAM mode generator can be flexibly adjusted by designing the cascaded length of the HLPG pair. When the cascaded length is 50 cm, the maximum channel number of OAM mode generator reaches 46, and the mode convert efficiencies of the channels are more than 90 %, which is, to the best of our knowledge, the highest number of channels among OAM mode converters. By reducing grating length and enhancing the refractive index modulation depth, the 3 dB bandwidth of the HLPG is significantly increased, and thus the wavelength range of the HLPG pair can be expanded. The maximum wavelength ranges of the channels with coupling efficiency greater than 90 % are measured to be 379 nm experimentally. By adjusting the spiral direction of the helical refractive index modulation, we can achieve multi-channel ± 1 order OAM mode conversion for each channel. The multi-channel OAM mode generator holds substantial potential for applications in mode division multiplexing systems, wavelength filters, and fiber sensing.

Redefining uniform circular array’s limit by using square patch elements for higher order orbital angular momentum mode generation

This article proposes a technique to design the Uniform Circular Array (UCA) antenna for the generation of higher order of orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes using lesser number of antenna elements. Earlier, the highest possible OAM mode number (lmax) generated using conventional N-element UCA is limited by number of antenna elements N ≥ 2|lmax|. In the proposed design, a square patch element is placed between two antenna elements of conventional 4-element UCA to generate higher order OAM modes (0, ±1, ±2, and ±3 OAM modes) with lesser number of antenna elements. The proposed UCA is compact in size and requires less complex power dividing phase networks in comparison to conventional 8-element UCA to generate similar lmax. The proposed UCA with square patch is designed at 5.2 GHz and lmax of a N-element UCA with square patch is now limited by number of antenna elements as N ≥ |lmax|. The simulated and measured phase patterns for various OAM modes are in good agreement and supported by mathematical analysis. A comparison of the new structure with the conventional Uniform Circular Arrays available in the literature is also tabulated.

Orbital angular momentum mode femtosecond fiber laser with over 100 MHz repetition rate

Orbital angular momentum (OAM) lasers have potential applications in large capacity communication systems, laser processing, particle manipulation and quantum optics. OAM mode femtosecond fiber laser has become the research focus due to the advantages of simple structure, low cost and high peak power. At present, OAM mode femtosecond fiber lasers have made some breakthroughs in key parameters such as repetition frequency, pulse width, spectrum width, but it is difficult to achieve good overall performance. Besides, the repetition rate is tens of MHz at present. In this paper, a large-bandwidth mode coupler is made based on the mode phase matching principle. In coupler, the first order mode coupler with 3 dB polarization dependent loss is made by the technology of strong fused biconical taper, and the second order mode coupler with 0.3 dB polarization dependent loss is made by the technology of weak fused biconical taper. By combining the nonlinear polarization rotation mode-locking mechanism, OAM mode femtosecond fiber laser with over 100 MHz repetition rate is built. The achievement of the key parameters is attributed to the selection of dispersion shifted fibers that can accurately adjust intracavity dispersion. Comparing with traditional dispersion compensation fibers (DCF), the group velocity dispersion is reduced by an order of magnitude, so it can better adjust intracavity dispersion to achieve the indexes of large spectral bandwidth and narrow pulse width. In addition, the diameter of the fiber is 8 μm, which is the same as that of a single mode fiber. Comparing with DCF, the fusion loss can be ignored, so only a shorter gain Erbium-doped fiber is required, which ensures a shorter overall cavity length and achieves high repetition frequency. The experimental results show that the first order OAM mode fiber laser has 113.6 MHz repetition rate, 98 fs half-height full pulse width, and 101 nm 10 dB bandwidth. Second-order OAM mode fiber laser has 114.9 MHz repetition rate, 60 fs half-height full pulse width, and 100 nm 10 dB bandwidth. Compared with the reported schemes, our scheme has good performance in key parameters such as repetition rate, pulse width and spectral width. We believe that the OAM mode fiber laser with excellent performance is expected to be widely used in OAM communication, particle manipulation and other research fields.

On-demand flat-top wideband OAM mode converter based on a cladding-etched helical fiber grating.

A new method enabling to provide an on-demand flat-top wideband orbital angular momentum (OAM) mode converter is proposed and experimentally demonstrated, which is based on utilization of a cladding-etched helical long-period fiber grating (CEHLPG). By appropriately selecting the grating period and precisely controlling the diameter of the CEHLPG in-situ, both the radial order and central wavelength of the flat-top band for the generated OAM mode can be flexibly tailored according to specific requirements. As typical examples, the first azimuthal order OAM modes with a flat-top bandwidth of 95 nm at -20 dB, a central operating wavelength of ∼1500 nm, and the radial-orders of 9, 8, 5, and 2, respectively, have been demonstrated consecutively. The proposed method provides an excellent flexibility and robustness in controlling both the radial order and the central wavelength of the resulting flat-top wideband OAM mode conversion, which may support a variety of practical optical vortex applications.

Low loss side-polished pumping coupler for high order OAM modes amplification.

An all-fiber fiber coupler was demonstrated for pumping orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes amplification, which was fabricated by side-polishing and bonding a ring-core erbium-doped fiber (RC-EDF) and a pre-tapered side-polished single-mode fiber (SMF). With the selected phase-matching condition at 976 nm, the pumping laser was coupled into the RC-EDF from the SMF with optimized high efficiency, whereas the 1st to 3rd-order OAM mode signals were transmitted with the low insertion loss in the RC-EDF over a broadband wavelength range from 1530 to 1565 nm. This all-fiber wavelength division multiplexing coupler was optimized by the polished length and depth of the two coupled fibers. The insertion loss for the OAM signal modes was obtained lower than 0.58 dB with the pump power coupling ratio of above 90%. The proposed side-polished pumping coupler technique can ensure high-order OAM modes amplification, paving the way for the all-fiber optical amplifier in high-capacity modal-division multiplexing fiber communication systems.

Three-Dimensional Imaging of Vortex Electromagnetic Wave Radar with Integer and Fractional Order OAM Modes

Vortex electromagnetic (EM) waves, with different orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes, have the ability to distinguish the azimuth of radar targets, and then the two-dimensional reconstruction of the targets can be achieved. However, the vortex EM wave imaging methods in published research have no ability to obtain the elevation of the targets, and thus, the three-dimensional spatial structure and richer feature information of the radar target cannot be obtained. Therefore, a three-dimensional imaging method of vortex EM waves with integer- and fractional-order OAM modes is proposed in this paper, which can realize a three-dimensional reconstruction of a radar target based on a uniform circular array (UCA) with two-step imaging. First, the vortex EM wave with integer- and fractional-order OAM modes is generated, and the echo model with different OAM mode types is established. Thereafter, the echo with integer order is processed to obtain the range-azimuth image by fast Fourier transform (FFT). Then, in order to realize the three-dimensional reconstruction, the echo with fractional order is processed by utilizing the butterfly operation and analyzing the characteristics of the fractional Bessel function. Moreover, the resolution and reconstruction precision of the azimuth and elevation are analyzed. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by simulation experiments.

Co-Modulation of Spin Angular Momentum and High-Order Orbital Angular Momentum Based on Anisotropic Holographic Metasurfaces

In this communication, a new method for modulating spin angular momentum (SAM) and orbital angular momentum (OAM) based on anisotropic holographic metasurfaces is proposed, which can realize the co-modulation of SAM, high order OAM, and beam’s direction simultaneously. The tensor unit adopts an ellipse patch with three adjustable parameters without slotting, and a design and analysis method suitable for this kind of tensor unit is proposed based on the two-dimensional effective impedance database for geometrical size mapping. Based on the tensor unit and proposed methods, the vortex beams with a single SAM state, a single high order OAM mode, and different directions are generated at 22 GHz. Then, the deflected vortex beams with the same SAM state and mixed OAM modes, or the deflected vortex beams with different SAM states and OAM modes are realized using a single feed and a single metasurface integrated for the first time. Simulation and experimental measurement results show that the OAM mode purity can reach more than 80% of the theoretical best value in the main SAM state. The proposed design methods and the device can achieve arbitrary modulation of SAM and OAM, providing a solution for combining and applying the two to multiplexing communications.

Orbital angular momentum mode femtosecond fiber laser with over 100 MHz repetition rate

Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) lasers have potential demand in many applications such as large capacity communication systems, laser processing, particle manipulation and quantum optics. OAM mode femtosecond fiber laser has become the research focus with the advantages of simple structure, low cost and high peak power. The current OAM mode femtosecond fiber lasers have made breakthroughs in the repetition frequency, pulse width, spectrum width and other key parameters, but it is difficult to achieve good overall performance. Besides, the repetition rate is currently in tens of MHz. In this paper, a large-bandwidth mode coupler is made based on the mode phase matching principle. Among them, the first order mode coupler with 3dB polarization dependent loss is made by the technology of strong fused biconical taper, and the second order mode coupler with 0.3dB polarization dependent loss is made by the technology of weak fused biconical taper. Combined with the nonlinear polarization rotation mode-locking mechanism, OAM mode femtosecond fiber lasers with over 100 MHZ repetition rate are built. The achievement of the key parameters is attributed to the selection of dispersion shifted fibers that can accurately adjust intracavity dispersion. Compared to traditional dispersion compensation fibers (DCF), the group velocity dispersion is reduced by an order of magnitude, so it can better adjust intracavity dispersion to achieve the indicators of large spectral bandwidth and narrow pulse width. In addition, the diameter of the fiber is 8μm, which is the same as that of a single mode fiber. Compared to DCF, the fusion loss can be ignored, so only a shorter gain Erbium-doped fiber is required that ensure a shorter overall cavity length and achieve high repetition frequency. The experimental results show that the first order OAM mode fiber laser has 113.6 MHz repetition rate, 98 fs half-height full pulse width, and 101nm 10-dB bandwidth. Second-order OAM mode fiber laser has 114.9 MHz repetition rate, 60 fs half-height full pulse width, and 100nm 10-dB bandwidth. Compared with the reported schemes, our scheme has better performance in key parameters such as repetition rate, pulse width and spectral width. We believe that the OAM mode fiber laser with good over performance is expected to be more widely used in OAM communication, particle manipulation and other research fields.

Multichannel ±2 order orbital angular momentum mode converter based on an elliptical-core helical intermediate-period fiber grating.

We propose and demonstrate a multichannel ±2 order orbital angular momentum (OAM) mode converter based on an elliptical-core helical intermediate-period fiber grating (E-HIPFG). By decreasing the grating pitch to ∼17.5 µm, ten wavelength channels are observed in the transmission spectrum of the E-HIPFG. Within the wavelength range of 1240-1650 nm, the ±2 order OAM modes are identified at each wavelength channel. The proposed E-HIPFG is ∼2.6 mm in length, which is more than one order of magnitude shorter than the conventional device, and thus may be more resistant to external disturbances, such as bending. Furthermore, the device exhibits an ultralow temperature drift of ∼5.84 pm/°C. Therefore, the proposed E-HIPFG can be a good candidate for a multichannel higher-order OAM mode converter.

Excitation of high order orbital angular momentum modes in ultra-short chiral long period fiber gratings.

A class of ultra-short chiral long period fiber gratings (CLPFGs) are prepared by writing a spiral curve on the surface of a six-mode fiber. The CLPFGs are applied to excite ±2nd- and ±3rd-order orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes. The coupling efficiency of the CLPFG in these modes can be as high as 99%, when the length is only 0.5cm. The polarization characteristic of the excited higher-order OAM modes in CLPFGs was theoretically analyzed and experimentally investigated. Results show that the obtained ±2nd- and ±3rd-order OAM modes are polarization independent, as expected.

Numerical investigation of spiral photonic crystal fiber (S-PCF) with supporting high order OAM modes propagation for space division multiplexing applications

This article proposes a spiral designed photonic crystal fiber (S-PCF) that supports 14 orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes for signal transmission and possess very low nonlinear coefficient and flat dispersion and it could assess for space division multiplexing applications. The core material of the proposed fiber is silicon because it shows excellent transmittance, low thermal response, chemically inert etc. The dispersion variations of 20–110 ps nm−1 km−1 for all OAM-modes are exhibited at 1.00 μm wavelength. In addition, overall dispersion distinction among all modes is under 10 ps nm−1 km−1. Besides, $$TM_{0,1}$$ and $$TE_{0,1}$$ modes are better in dispersion for its flat and low dispersion. Moreover, the nonlinear coefficient is very low that is 2.10 W−1 km−1 for $$EH_{5,1}$$ at 2.50 µm wavelength and the investigated confinement loss is always below than $$10^{ - 5}$$ dB m−1. In addition these basic optical parameters, few other properties such as numerical aperture and the effective-area are also computed. Considering all noble features, this proposed S-PCF is encouraging to be utilized in extra-capacity, large bandwidth and high-volume for optical fiber communication systems.

Hollow Ring-Core Photonic Crystal Fiber With >500 OAM Modes Over 360-nm Communications Bandwidth

We propose and design a hollow As2S3 ring-core photonic crystal fiber (PCF) with 514 radially fundamental orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes over 360 nm communications bandwidth across all the O, E, S, C, and L bands. The designed PCF with 40 $\mu \text{m}$ -radius air core and 150 nm-width As2S3 ring can support eigenmodes up to HE130,1 and EH128,1. The numerical analysis shows that the designed ring PCF has large effective refractive index contrast, and can transmit up to 874 OAM modes near 1.55 $\mu \text{m}$ . Simulation results show that in the C and L bands, the PCF with a hollow-core radius of 40 $\mu \text{m}$ and a ring width of 0.15 $\mu \text{m}$ can retain an $2.5\times 10 ^{-3}$ effective refractive index difference between the two highest order OAM modes, which achieves effective mode separation, thereby achieving stable OAM mode transmission. The $n_{eff}$ difference between the even and odd fiber eigenmodes and the intra-mode walk-off are also carefully studied under different bending radii. The results show that higher-order OAM modes has better tolerance to the fiber bending, compared with the lower-order modes. The fiber has the potential to support ultra-high capacity OAM mode division multiplexing in the optical fiber communication systems.

Vortex Polymer Optical Fiber with 64 Stable OAM States.

This research introduces a numerical design of an air-core vortex polymer optical fiber in cyclic transparent optical polymer (CYTOP) that propagates 32 orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes, i.e., it may support up to 64 stable OAM-states considering left- and right-handed circular polarizations. This fiber seeks to be an alternative to increase the capacity of short-range optical communication systems multiplexed by modes, in agreement with the high demand of low-cost, insensitive-to-bending and easy-to-handle fibers similar to others optical fibers fabricated in polymers. This novel fiber possesses unique characteristics: a diameter of 50 µm that would allow a high mechanical compatibility with commercially available polymer optical fibers, a difference of effective index between neighbor OAM modes of around 10−4 over a bandwidth from 1 to 1.6 µm, propagation losses of approximately 15 × 10−3 dB/m for all OAM modes, and a very low dispersion for OAM higher order modes (±l = 16) of up to +2.5 ps/km-nm compared with OAM lower order modes at a telecom wavelength of 1.3 µm, in which the CYTOP exhibits a minimal attenuation. The spectra of mutual coupling coefficients between modes are computed considering small bends of up to 3 cm of radius and slight ellipticity in the ring of up to 5%. Results show lower-charge weights for higher order OAM modes.

Wavelength Tunable OAM Mode Converters Based on Chiral Long-Period Gratings

We have demonstrated direct generation of high-order orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes by chiral long-period gratings (CLPGs) written in a few mode fiber (FMF) via a CO2 laser. The high-order core modes (LP11, LP21, and LP31 modes) were realized by the CLPGs through high order diffraction modes with efficiencies of more than 99.69%. The -1st, −2nd, and −3rd order OAM modes can be generated directly by the CLPGs with various grating periods. The proposed method opens a new path to implement all fiber high-order OAM mode generation. The OAM mode converters can be adopted as wavelength tunable mode converters by adjusting twist rate of the CLPGs, which could be widely used in optical communication and fiber sensing system based on FMFs.

All-fiber bandwidth tunable ultra-broadband mode converters based on long-period fiber gratings and helical long-period gratings

We demonstrated the fabrication of bandwidth tunable ultra-broadband mode converters based on CO2-laser inscribed long-period fiber gratings (LPFGs) and helical long-period gratings (HLPGs) in a two-mode fiber (TMF). The simulation and experimental results show that there is a dual-resonance coupling from LP01 to LP11 core mode at the dispersion turning point. The mode converters based on the TMF-LPFG and TMF-HLPG provide a 10-dB bandwidth of ∼300 nm and ∼297 nm, respectively, which covers O + E+S + C band. The 1st order orbital angular momentum (OAM) mode based on TMF-LPFG was generated by adjusting the polarization controllers (PCs), while the 1st order OAM mode can be generated directly by the TMF-HLPG. When the twist rate is varied from -36 rad/m ∼ 36 rad/m, the tunable range of the 10-dB bandwidth is ∼52 nm and ∼91 nm for the LPFG and HLPG mode converters, respectively. The ultra-broadband mode converter can be adopted as a bandwidth tunable mode converter, which can be applied in ultra-broadband mode-division-multiplexing transmission systems and optical fiber sensing systems based on few-mode fibers.

Helical Bragg gratings filter for orbital angular momentum wave

Effective filtration of orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes is essential to achieve multiple-channel data transmission in an OAM fiber for telecommunication applications. The nature of helical-shaped OAM wave propagation possessing many topological charges implies the need for uniquely designed index-modulated filters to conform to its twisted propagating direction in the fiber. Here, different from previous structures in demultiplexing OAM modes, a helical-shaped fiber grating structure concept is proposed as a pathway toward efficient demultiplexing of OAM modes in a fiber. A comparison of our proposed structure with the conventional fiber Bragg filter in transmitting an OAM wave shows a stronger reflection of the higher order OAM mode. We suggest that the proposed fiber Bragg structure has strong potential to be used for OAM fiber telecommunication technology.

Epsilon-near-zero photonic crystal fibers for a large mode separation of orbital angular momentum modes

An orbital angular momentum (OAM) mode is a good candidate as an orthogonal basis mode set for mode division multiplexing (MDM) owing to its unique phase properties. Photonic crystal fibers support large numbers of OAM modes with notable performances. However, the effective index difference between high order OAM modes is not large enough. In this work, we propose two types of epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) materials-embedded circular photonic crystal fibers for high mode separation. Compared with previously developed photonic crystal fibers, the designed fibers exhibit a high refractive index contrast owing to the inserted ENZ materials. The designed fibers support up to 42 OAM modes. Most of these OAM modes provide a large effective index difference (Δneff > 10−3) while maintaining a radial sing mode condition over a wide wavelength range from 1.3 μm to 1.8 μm. The proposed fibers could potentially be exploited in MDM for stable transmission of OAM modes and other OAM-based applications.